MEHDIPOUR DASTJERDI N., FAKHERAN S., SAFIANIAN A., POURMANAFI S., ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT, No. 191, PP. 461_473, 2019.

Abstract:

This study assessed the effect of road devel-opment on vegetation fragmentation in and around aprotected area network in western Isfahan Province,Central Iran. As the first study in Iran, an attempt wasalso made using the weighted linear combination–informed ecological value index of roadless area(EVIRA), to evaluate the environmental value of road-less areas based on a set of ecological and anthropogenicfactors. Toward these aims, a Landsat 8-OLI image wasprocessed to delineate land use/cover of the region.Road-induced fragmentation was then estimated bycomparing the results of a small set of landscape metrics(DIVISION, SPLIT, MESH, LPI, and NP) measuredfrom the original and road-included LULC map. Theresults showed road-induced increasing DIVISION (by4.8–85.9%) and SPLIT (by 0.01–23.1%) and decreasingMESH (by 2.7–14%), LPI (by 1.3–32.4%), and NP (by6–97.8%) values within all protected areas and acrossthe entire study area, indicating a significant rise inlandscape fragmentation and habitat loss. Roadlesspatch area and Thiessen connectivity stood out as themost salient criteria in determining environmentallyvaluable roadless areas. The results of EVIRA showedthat the study region comprises some valuable but un-protected roadless areas which should be protectedagainst road development or any kind of destructivehuman activities by laying out conservation plans ortheir inclusion to the current protected area network.